## Facts

- Gorgonio Balbuena, an undocumented Mexican national, worked as a construction laborer for Taman Management Corp. at a site owned/managed by IDR Realty LLC and Dora Wechler.
- In April 2000, Balbuena fell while pushing a wheelbarrow on a ramp and suffered severe head trauma and other disabling injuries, leaving him unable to work.
- Balbuena and his wife sued alleging common-law negligence and violations of New York Labor Law §§ 240(1) and 241(6), seeking damages including past and future lost earnings.
- During discovery, the employer sought proof of work authorization and moved for partial summary judgment to dismiss lost-wage claims, arguing federal immigration law barred recovery and relying on Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB.
- There was no evidence Balbuena used false documents or other fraud to obtain employment.

## Issues

1. Whether an undocumented worker’s lack of federal work authorization, without proof of employment-related fraud, bars recovery of lost earnings under New York tort law and Labor Law.
2. Whether IRCA and Hoffman Plastic preempt or otherwise prohibit state-law awards of lost U.S. earnings to undocumented workers injured on the job.
3. Whether immigration status is categorically dispositive, or merely potentially relevant evidence, in calculating future lost earnings.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals held that undocumented status, standing alone, does not preclude recovery of lost earnings in New York tort and Labor Law actions.
- The court rejected the claim that IRCA or Hoffman Plastic bars or preempts such compensatory damages where the worker did not obtain the job through fraudulent documents.
- The court reversed the Appellate Division in Balbuena and permitted pursuit of lost earnings based on U.S. wages.
- The court stated that immigration status may be admissible if relevant to damages (e.g., evidence bearing on future work prospects), but it is not a categorical bar.
- The court rejected limiting lost earnings to wages in the worker’s country of origin as inconsistent with New York remedial policy and unsupported by federal law.

## Legal Principles

- State tort and Labor Law remedies for workplace injuries are not displaced by IRCA absent clear congressional intent; workplace safety and compensation are traditional state concerns.
- Hoffman Plastic’s restriction on federal labor-law backpay for an employee who used fraudulent documents does not control state-law compensatory damages for physical injury, particularly where no fraud is shown.
- Undocumented status does not, by itself, foreclose lost-earnings damages; it may affect the factfinder’s assessment of the amount of future earnings only when tied to concrete, case-specific proof.
- New York Labor Law §§ 240(1) and 241(6) apply to workers on covered sites regardless of immigration status, consistent with their deterrent and protective purposes.

## Conclusion

The New York Court of Appeals held that an undocumented worker injured at a New York construction site may seek lost U.S. earnings under negligence and Labor Law theories when the employment was not obtained through fraud, and that federal immigration law does not bar or preempt such compensatory damages, though immigration-related evidence may be considered if it bears on the amount of future loss.


Balbuena v. IDR Realty LLC, 845 N.E.2d 1246 (N.Y. 2006)